TPIR
& PERRY MASON
Kevin S. Butler makes this prediction: "There is no way that
The Price Is Right will be able to continue successfully without Bob Barker. No
radio/TV MC before has been able to successfully play games with contestants
from the studio audience and display such a genuine, friendly nature.

"Oftimes
former TPIR
hosts like Tom Kennedy and the late Dennis James would exhibit a phony
nature towards the contestants. They didn't have Mr. Barker's fun loving
attitude and were unable to host the nighttime syndicated versions of
the program.

"I
feel that Jonathon Goodson (the show's executive producer/corporate head
and the son of the show's co-producer and co-founder of the company the
late Mark Goodson) should let the show die after Mr. Barker's departure
this coming May. Otherwise, The
Price Is Right will be nothing more than another unsuccessful attempt
to keep an old and bye now passe' concept going, trying to stay on the
air for nothing more than making money and attempting to maintain an audience
that may no longer be there.

Also
relating to an earlier post, Kevin adds: "Perry Mason
was always a good TV crime drama and not just during the show's first
season. The episodes that aired during its long run were always thought
provoking and entertaining due to the wonderful scripting and the performances
of the show's main cast and the guest actors. Perry Mason always
had the best of Hollywood's list of character players.

"Zasu
Pitts, Michael Constantine, Les Treymaine, Alan Hale, Jr., Paul Winchell,
Paul Tripp (yes, two of kiddie TV's most famous hosts/performers played
villains on this show), Robert Armstrong, John Banner, Connie Hines, Jesse
White, Sylvia Fine and Francis Bavier were among the many talented performers
who appeared on the show. And the performances from Ray Collins (as Lt.
Art Tragg), Bill Talman (as DA Hamilton Burger), Bill Hopper (as private
detective Paul Drake), Barbara Hale (as Mr. Mason's secretary Della Street)
and Raymond Burr as Perry Mason - all of them made this show a hit.

"No
one has ever topped this type of quality courtroom drama before or since.

"Perry
Mason was successfully revived as a series of made for TV movies in the
1980's / early 1990's - successful mainly due to the fact that TV producer
Fred Silverman was able to hire Mr. Burr and Ms. Hale to play their roles
one more time. Mr. Burr stated that he would do the first Perry Mason
TV movie in 1985 but only on the condition that Ms. Hale be hired to play
Della Street again. She didn't want to do it but Mr. Burr said, "I
wont do it without you, Barbara." And I agree with Mr. Burr, there
is no way that he could have played that role again without this caring
and courageous partner.

"Mr.
Silverman was also wise enough to hire new actors to play Paul Drake,
Jr. (Ms. Hale's real life son actor and singer William Katt), along with
David Ogden Stiers as DA Michael Restin and a tough black actor (James
McEachin) playing the no nonsense police detective Lt. Brock.

"The
TV movies also featured a list of talented guest performers like Patty
Duke, Mason Adams, Ronny Cox, Pernell Roberts, Robert Guillaume, and a
talented lady that I was lucky to work with on Alf's
Hit Talk Show Ms. Linda Blair.

"The
only reason that this wonderful concept ended was that Mr. Burr left us
all too soon in 1993. Follow up TV movies starred talented men in the
role of the lead lawyer (Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook starred but not
as Perry Mason) but the idea didn't work and the series finally came to
an end."

Not
to mention The New Perry Mason from 1973 - with none other than
Brett Somers (Match Game) as Perry's secretary Gertrude "Gertie"
Lade and Monte Markham in the title role. That series lasted only a few
weeks on CBS but is fondly remembered by many viewers, perhaps because
of the stellar guest stars that included Denver Pyle, Jodie Foster, Pat
Harrington, Carolyn Jones, Simon Oakland among others. Believe it or not,
there are a lot of folks who would like to see this show on DVD - me,
I'm looking forward to season two of Perry Mason.

Oh,
and if I were CBS I would be looking to morning radio personalities for
the next host of The Price is Right. Only an unknown (Conan O'Brien)
could have replaced David Letterman and I think that would be the best
strategy in this case.

NEW
SHOW, NEW LOWSo,
one of the main guys behind 24 has created a right wing version
of The Daily Show, it's called the Half Hour News Hour.
Here's a clip from You Tube:

Now
tell me, have you ever seen anything less funny in your life? The opening
to the show is a cold ripoff of The Daily Show theme and they
even have to use an annoying laugh track to get you to believe that comedy
is happening.

It
airs on Fox News, the home of fake news.

Speaking
of 24, I caught the couple of episodes Fox broadcast the other
night. I was so bored I gave up on it before the second episode finished.
I really enjoyed the past seasons of 24. I watched the first
three seasons twice - but the series gets worse with each year.

FROM
THE MAILBAG"In looking through your otherwise fantastic site, I came across
a mention of The Charmings being the worst show of 1986. While
I hardly think it was a GREAT show, I don't think it deserves to be panned
so. Despite the silly premise, the show featured some outstanding performances
by Christopher Rich, Judy Parfitt and Pail Winfield that made it an enjoyable
series to watch. It only lasted two seasons, and in truth that's about
all you could expect from such a limited idea. And probably because of
that, it never had the chance to be as bad as some of the more popular
shows were.
I should also add that the show has gotten a lot of praise on IMDB and
on Jump The Shark from viewers who still remember it after so many years.
Sincerely,
-Joe Vecchio
PS I'm glad you had praise for The Wizard, another good show
from that era that deserved better."

This
points out a conundrum. Every TV show, even if I thought it was the worst
thing ever, had tens of thousands of people who loved it. Who am I to
say they're wrong? If I'm reviewing a DVD collection, I won't point it
out if I didn't like the show itself - it's too late to criticize the
original production, it's done. If you want to own Hogan's Heroes,
my opinion on that show doesn't matter; although I'm quick to praise to
the hilt programs I enjoy or discover for the first time on DVD.

In
the case of The Charmings, I only saw one episode. It seemed
like a Bewitched rip-off to me, but it certainly wasn't the worst
thing I'd seen and better than a lot of what's on today. If I'm not mistaken
it was being rerun on one of the cable channels a few years back.

WHAT
I'M WATCHINGOne
of my favorite television series of all time is World at War,
produced by the BBC and HBO in the 1970s. These WW2 documentaries were
by far the most riveting I'd seen and the production was expanded for
DVD. If you enjoyed World at War you may want to consider watching
it again with the 12 hours of extras, bonus documentaries and retrospectives.

Right
now I'm enjoying another WW2 docu-series called The Nazis: A Warning
from History which has a fascinating collection of untold stories,
interviews with key people and utilizes documents that have been gone
over before. It's a magnificently paced, heart-breaking work that provides
fresh details into one of the defining moments in world history.

Released
by the BBC and A&E (written and produced by Lawrence Rees), The
Nazis becomes most riveting when interviews with unrepentant Nazis
and those who were most victimized by their brutality are on screen. Location
shoots offer some incredible present day views of former battlefields
and the now abandoned palaces that belonged to prominent Nazis.

Say
what you will about the Nazis but you have to admit they had some fine
photographers along with skilled filmmakers who were shooting (toward
the end of the war) with some spectacularly rich color motion picture
film.

AND
FINALLY ON THAT PLANE CRASH
"If you have the author of the inquiry contact me, I may be able
to help the family obtain copies of the two shows in question. Our web
site includes a web presentation on the Feb. 1, 1957 Rikers Island air
crash -- 10 web pages, 15 PDFs, 40 images, 2 lists of names (the passengers
and the Correction staff honored for their rescue response) and the CAB
report of its investigation. In fact, one of the pages in the presentation
may relate to the family memorial observance mentioned in the inquiry."www.correctionhistory.org

NEW
REALITY SHOW
Just what the world needs now, right? Interested in seeing clips from
the new Mark Burnett (Survivor) reality series On
the Lot? It's produced with Steven Spielberg and billed
as "a show where aspiring filmmakers can become Hollywood
directors."

MORE
ON THAT Feb. 1, 1957 PLANE CRASH"Billy Ingram was nice enough to forward your note. I am so happy
to hear from you. I only recently read the book Tiger on a Leash
last month. We found a few copies on amazon.com and a few of my cousins
read the book before the 50 year anniversary. The chapters on the plane
crash made the accident very real for me and our family. My uncle was
Mario De Rosa . He was 37 years old and left a wife (who died in her early
50's) and four children. The accident change our family's life. My uncle
moved next door to be closer to my aunt & her children. Every Sunday
my aunt would cook dinner for the family (3 brothers) and over ten cousins
ate together. Now 50 years later, when we have a birthday party we need
to rent a hall as the family has grown to over 60 people and we have very
close relationships including second and third cousins. We had a memorial
last Thursday, the day of the accident, for Mario and over 40 people attended
even though it was a workday for many of us.
I was very moved by the story of your family and that your mother was
listed as having the worst injuries. Your mother showed great courage
to continue to find a way out of the plane and save your brother's life.
I
was touched to hear about her story and that your family is so large.
I was surprised in the book by how many families had children aboard.
Was your brother injured as well?

"Since
we feel that this event changed our family's lives, I was hoping to get
a copy of the old TV shows so some of the younger cousins and grandchildren
can learn of crash. For my cousins and uncles who lost a father and brother
the accident is still very emotional for them. There was a lot of confusion
after the crash and the messages from city officials were that he was
dead, then alive in hospital and then confirmed a day later that he was
dead.

"It
would be great if we can get copy of the show which was on the Survival
Channel. There is also another show about the crash that I listed
in my email. If I am successful in obtaining a copy for either show ,
I will forward to you.
There is also a website set up recently with a lot of information on the
crash . The site shows pictures similar to the book and it is amazing
that only 20 people died and over 80 escaped considering that all of the
exit doors were jammed.The
site is here. If you google "1957 plane crash rikers
island" you get the site. We also heard that NYC may be having a
ceremony on Rikers Island this month."

TWO
YEARS AGOTV/newspaper
pundit Jonah Goldberg's "bet" with Juan Cole is coming due.
On Feb. 8, 2005, the 'doughy pantload' (I love that description) said:
"Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes
to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate
anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq
won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that
a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that
the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right
now)."

How does this person, who is spectacularly wrong on almost every issue,
maintain a shred of credibility, much less a job?

SMALL
WORLD
From the mailbag: "Hello, I read that you had family on the Northeast
Airline Flight Feb. 1, 1957. My mother and brother were on that flight.
My mother was one of the worst burn victims. I was only 1 yrs. old and
she lived on to be 65 after so many skin graphs she was able to go on.
My family and I are from Malden Massachusetts. I have gotten a few of
the Tiger on a Leash books online and am ordering another one
soon. My brother recorded the plane crash that was documented on the Survival
channel. He still has it. I wish I could find out how to get
copies from the Survival channel that had shown it. If I find it I will
get back to you and see what we can do about getting a few.

50
YEARS AGOI got this
email and I passed along some leads, but I wonder if any of you guys might
know the answer to this: "Looking for some old TV shows which
highlighted a tragedy for our family.

"My
uncle died in plane crash more 50 years ago yesterday . The plane went
up in La Guardia airport and down in Rikers Island , The airline was Northeast
and Flight number 823. The crash was on Feb. 1, 1957.

"We
had a memorial for him and some family members discussed that there were
two TV shows which dramatized the plane crash . The first one was part
of the Armstrong Circle Theatre is entitled Day of Disaster:: Rikers Island.
The rescue episode is Number 258 of the series & was aired on May
14,1957 . The second show was aired in 1964 on a show called "Survival"
. The episode called " Survival: Flight 823". Survival was a
syncopated documentary series conceived by Sherman Grinberg distributed
by Official Films.

WHAT
I'M WATCHING
Gomer Pyle, USMC
I haven't seen this show since I was a kid and I wasn't that impressed
with it then - but I find it hilarious now. What makes it work so well
is the snappy delivery of Frank Sutton who played Sgt. Carter, performances
that are spot-on and flat out funny. In case you didn't know, most of
the best writers and producers of The Andy Griffith Show moved
over to Gomer Pyle which explains why the show is so crisp.

Gunsmoke
50th Anniversary Edition
I Netflixed this one - so I don't have all the discs or the packaging.
I wasn't even sure why I rented it, Gunsmoke is one of those
shows that ran hot and cold. Some episodes are inspiring, beautifully
directed television but could too often become pedestrian.
What struck me about the first disc were the two episode commentaries
by Ed Asner and Bruce Dern. Dern was a guest on the episode starring Bette
Davis and his comments about working in TV in the 1960s (and with Miss
Davis) is incredibly insightful. There are lots of other extras as well
- now I discover the DVD collection was produced by Paul Brownstein, which
I suspected when I saw this rich mix of extras (the commentaries are just
the tip of the iceberg). They don't call him the 'Raider of the Lost Archives'
for nothing. Now I'm looking forward to experiencing the rest of this
DVD package.

Hootenanny
I keep coming back to this DVD collection. If you're a fan of world, bluegrass,
country, roots of rock, gospel or folk music this is a must-have. Sublime
from start to finish. You can put it on and play it like a CD.

DAYTIME
TOP TEN
Want to know how your favorite daytime TV shows are doing in the ratings?
Here's the top ten based on Nielsen ratings from Sept. 18, 2006 through
Jan. 21, 2007:The Price is Right (CBS, second half: 5.87 million viewers),
Young and the Restless (CBS: 5.67) The Price is Right (CBS, first half: 4.81) Bold and the Beautiful (CBS: 4.16) The View (ABC: 3.46 million) General Hospital (ABC: 3.42) Days of Our Lives (NBC: 3.33) As the World Turns (CBS: 3.25) One Life to Live (ABC: 3.10) All My Children (ABC: 3.09)

Note
that a million more people tune in to the second half of The Price
Is Right than watch the first half. CBS must be freaking out about
the possibility of losing their top daytime program when Bob Barker retires.

Speaking
of TPIR, did you know Doug Davidson (among others) has auditioned
to take over the hosting role? Does anyone remember his disastrous turn
as host of the nighttime
TPIR in 1994? It didn't even finish out the season
as I recall.

While
I didn't care for him (to be fair, I only saw the first few episodes)
one TVparty-er wrote: "Well, I don't fully blame Doug for his
lackluster effort. The extreme change in format and timing contributed
to it, I always felt he was moving the show WAY too fast. However, there
were some things about that version I also liked. The new camera that
gave a bird's eye view of the audience and the big wheel RULED. I also
like how he built up the suspense when a car was being offered. He once
had a contestant close her eyes and he went backstage and climbed into
the back of a truck, and the truck entered with him standing on it. With
Barker, it's always predictable when a contestant is about to win a car."

The
guys they arrested were just doing their job on behalf of the ad agency
they work for and Turner Broadcasting. Not one of the other cities where
these promos were installed reacted this way. At best it's just one of
those things, a sad reminder of how frightened we've become. We can thank
the media for that but we only have ourselves to blame, I suppose.

I'm
looking forward to the ATHF movie myself - and Turner ought to
pay for everything, it was a publicity bonanza for a very funny show.

Eric
from Just My
Show has a new episode up and you should check it out, it
features interviews with Ted Lange (The Love Boat/Celebrity Fit Club)
and Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks). Eric says: "I'm
guessing you've seen it, but if by some chance you missed Freaks
and Geeks in its short run, you should definitely check out the DVD.
It's one of the great shows that a lot of people haven't seen."

IN
THE NEWS
Keith Schad tells us: "I seem to remember you said you were looking
for a clip of the CBS program In The News, the Saturday morning current
events program for kids, narrated by the late Christopher Glenn. I don't
know if you have seen this one, but I found it on You Tube and thought
you might like to post it so others can see it too. It is about the NASA's
'troublesome new year' and the space shuttle program. I love hearing that
sounder for In The News again!"

THE
BIG VALLEY
The first 15 episodes of season two of the Big Valley is out now on DVD
and it's a pretty good show as I remember, the last of the great, old-time
TV westerns with an all-star cast that included Barbara Stanwyck, Peter
Breck, Lee Majors and Linda Evans. I haven't seen the show in thirty years
but here are some video clips (in Windows Media format) for your enjoyment.